I love end of the year clearance.

I had a coupon for $10 off on a bag of dog food to a ranch store that I had never shopped at.
As I was walking in to buy my dog food they had this little 12 ton gas powered spliter on clearance for $300 regular price was $599
I know that people here have had good luck with the 4 ton electrics so I thought I would give it a go and see what it could do. I figured that worst case I could resell it for what I paid for it.
I split about half a cord with it today and it works better than I thought it would. It takes it a couple of seconds to spool up to max psi on the harder stuff but it was faster and a lot less work than using a maul. It seems to be built pretty well with gussets at the wedge and ram mount so I'll see how long it holds up for the long term. I figure I can always replace a pump or hydraulic cylinder if they die an early death.

Wow is right..let me know how it goes...what kind of wood you splitting? hit any tough knots yet? what is the cycle time?

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I split mostly pine with a few oddballs like apple or silver maple or elm if I get a decent scrounge. Mostly what grows in my location is pine and that is what will be the bulk of what I split with this.
I put a few knotty 10" diameter pieces through it and it took a couple of seconds to spool the power up but it split it just fine. Advertised cycle time is 12 seconds. I didn't time it but it that seems about right. In the yellow tubes that make up the table there are springs in them that retract the ram automatically when you let off the lever. By the time I grab another log to split the ram is fully retracted. The machine is low to the ground so I am not lifting the logs too high but I think it may cause some to have lower back pain. After about the 3rd log I was sitting on a milk crate and as long as my pile of logs was close that pretty good.

I hope so. Out of the 4 reviews on Northern Tool 1 was bad. I'll be putting this through some wood and see if it is indeed a worthy purchase. I split 12 cords by hand last year It better be able to match that

I split mostly pine with a few oddballs like apple or silver maple or elm if I get a decent scrounge. Mostly what grows in my location is pine and that is what will be the bulk of what I split with this.
I put a few knotty 10" diameter pieces through it and it took a couple of seconds to spool the power up but it split it just fine. Advertised cycle time is 12 seconds. I didn't time it but it that seems about right. In the yellow tubes that make up the table there are springs in them that retract the ram automatically when you let off the lever. By the time I grab another log to split the ram is fully retracted. The machine is low to the ground so I am not lifting the logs too high but I think it may cause some to have lower back pain. After about the 3rd log I was sitting on a milk crate and as long as my pile of logs was close that pretty good.

heck, one of those would be perfect for the boys to use on our tree jobs....that'd keep them busy and off of their Ipods and Nintendo DS's.........I bet I could even talk the wife into doing some splitting while I'm at work...

The cheapest part of this spliter seems to be the wheels and axle assembly.
The wheel the tire mounts on is plastic and they are only held on with a cotter pin and a washer. There are no bearings of any kind just a plastic hub sort of like one of those power wheels riding toys. I will probably have to make improvements in this area first.
It does have a warning about it in the manual that it should not be towed on the road only behind an ATV or garden tractor at speeds of no more than 5 mph.

Hmmm...don't know that I have seen one quite like that before. Looks fairly sturdy. At first I was a bit concerned about what appears to be a tiny hydro tank, but being that it is a single acting cylinder, it probably isn't as much of a big deal. Nice cycle times. Looks like a sweet little machine. That was a $300 no-brainer.

Hmmm...don't know that I have seen one quite like that before. Looks fairly sturdy. At first I was a bit concerned about what appears to be a tiny hydro tank, but being that it is a single acting cylinder, it probably isn't as much of a big deal. Nice cycle times. Looks like a sweet little machine. That was a $300 no-brainer.

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The owners manual states that if hydro fluid gets too hot that I should change it to Dexeron III auto trans fluid. Probably because it can handle more heat.

The cheapest part of this spliter seems to be the wheels and axle assembly.
The wheel the tire mounts on is plastic and they are only held on with a cotter pin and a washer. There are no bearings of any kind just a plastic hub sort of like one of those power wheels riding toys. I will probably have to make improvements in this area first.
It does have a warning about it in the manual that it should not be towed on the road only behind an ATV or garden tractor at speeds of no more than 5 mph.

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for all the more you have invested in it, id consider making some kind of bracket for it that you could mount it right on your hitch sideways and make it so its level with the truck bed....as you are taking the rounds off of the truck you could split them...

for all the morwle you have invested in it, id consider making some kind of bracket for it that you could mount it right on your hitch sideways and make it so its level with the truck bed....as you are taking the rounds off of the truck you could split them...

for all the morwle you have invested in it, id consider making some kind of bracket for it that you could mount it right on your hitch sideways and make it so its level with the truck bed....as you are taking the rounds off of the truck you could split them...

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Awesome Idea. I could also transport it this way since it is pretty compact. It is not any wider than a fullsize truck bed.